Winner of the Rockower Award, the highest honor in Jewish journalism, this blog contains random musings of a journalist, father, husband, son, friend, poodle-owner, Red Sox fan and occasionally-ranting rabbi, taken from Shabbat-O-Grams, columns, speeches, letters, sermons and thin air. "On One Foot," the column, appears regularly in the New York Jewish Week, as well as a blog for the "Times of Israel."

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Tbe Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Alyssa Goldberg on Naso

Shabbat
shalom.

Today,
we're going to talk about people who always go above what's expected and try to
achieve something greater.

Theodor
Herzl had a famous quote, " If you will it, it is no dream." What he
means by this is that you can't just sit around waiting for your dreams to come
true, you have to fight for them, and work hard. Once you start going after
them, they're no longer a far away dream, but something that can be
accomplished.

Here's a
funny story about Theodor Herzl: On my trip to Israel, we went to the
Independence Hall Museum. We sat in what seemed like a small theater, and a
picture popped up on the screen. The worker asked, "Can anyone tell me who
this is?" So me, being the overly excited person I am, practically jumped
out of my seat with my hand raised. "Abraham Lincoln!" I screamed.
Thanks to my rabbi and friends, I've never been able to forget that story.

In my
Torah portion, it talks about Nazerites, a perfect example of Jews going beyond
what's expected. For example, it's okay for Jews to drink wine. Despite this, the Nazerites still don't drink
any wine, and as a matter of fact, they even refuse to eat grapes. They go way beyond the minimal
requirement. And because of that, they
are able to do remarkable things. My
haftarah tells the story of Samson, who was a Nazerite from birth and because
of that he became incredibly strong.

When you
think of how tiny the Jewish population is, it's hard to believe how much we e
accomplished. So many Nobel prizes, great writers and even Adam Levine! And
Israel has gone way beyond what Herzl could've ever dreamed. Its now a thriving state, with a powerful
defense force and all different types of people.

However,
this not only applies to the Jewish community or Israel. Every day, people are striving to achieve
something greater, to be better than they already are.

Music
has always been the center of my life, I even used to have a YouTube channel
called irevolvearoundmusic. I'm always trying to learn more, because I always
want to be better at what I'm singing or what I'm playing on the flute or
piano. I mean, just last week I had one of the lead roles in my school play. It
added a lot of extra stress, but I knew I could do it, because I believe you
can never do too much of what you love.

But
enough about me.

Lets
talk about my mitzvah project. I've chosen to raise money for the Emunah Afula
Children's Center in Israel. When I visited there in 2012, I felt an immediate
connection with one girl. She wasn't very eager to work on the art project, but
slowly we made a masterpiece together. I knew then that I wanted this
organization to be my mitzvah project.

Earlier this year, I looked up the Emunah
website, and I found that they have programs that people can donate towards. It seemed like a perfect match when I found
that they're trying to raise money to buy instruments for the kids. I'm now
raising money for their music program, because I believe every kid should have
a chance to have music in their life.
Music is such a huge part of mine.
I don't know what I'd be doing without it, so I want to give all of
those kids a chance to love it as much as I do.